Self-Analysis and the Thankgiving that isn't Thanksgiving

There are certain things I have come to realize during this time I have been here in Brazil. One of which is that I have something in common with the Brazilian culture. In this certain case, that's not a good thing. haha

In general, saying that you will do something here, doesn't mean you will actually do it. This is something I regularly do (man, I REALLY can't stand that I do this). On the other hand, it's kind of nice in a really wrong way. Some examples: "Yeah, I'll send you that email tomorrow morning". "Sure, when I get home I'll call you" "I'll pay you back as soon as I get paid". These are the type of things that are said here that you can completely get away with not doing. Hardly anyone will get angry with you because it's such a normal thing. It's annoying that this is so common here; but at the same time I also do this exact thing, just not as much. It's  all so comfortable. (not in the good sense of the word) P.S. my mom would label all this as flakiness and very buggy ;)

Well, today is Thanksgiving in the good ol' U.S.A. They don't celebrate it here in Brazil obviously. Still, I have learned to be more grateful living here in Fortaleza than I have ever been in my life.

 So without further ado, here are some things I am thankful for:

My family that loves and supports me even though they are thousands of miles away. Love you guys.
My job. So thankful to have the opportunity to provide for my family.
My amazing wife, Géssica, who loves and cares for me, and who works so hard every day.

Things that I took for granted in the U.S. that are blessings:

Shower heads. (never though I'd put this on a thanksgiving list)
Cars. Man. I miss my car. Such a luxury.
Pillows. no comment.
Peanut butter
Being surrounded by people who live the gospel.
Living in a safe neighborhood
Air conditioning
My parent's house (enormous compared to the houses here)
Pantry that always had food (magically)
Dish washer, and washer and dryer (technology is amazing)
Libraries (basically nonexistent here)
Trees

I could go on, but you get the idea. There are so many little things that I never thought of as blessings. I am grateful for this experience to be down here in Brazil. I wouldn't trade this past year for anything. I've learned so much.

Oh, and one last blessing I am grateful for. This morning I looked at my email (site hahaha couldn't resist Dad) and I had received an email saying that the Feds have starting working on Géssica's visa!!!!! Finally. Also, that within 60 days we should have the second Notice of Action. Which means after that, there's just one more part of waiting and then the interview. Happy Thanksgiving!!

New House, New Calling,....

and a New Member of the family! JUST KIDDING! hahahaha. Well, just kidding about the last part. However, we did move into a new house and both Géssica and I were released from our callings within the last 3 weeks. Our Bishop switched up quite a few callings in our wards. I am no longer the Y.M. President. I was kind of sad to be released, because I had really become attached to the boys. I got called to be the new Ward Mission Leader though. My dream calling. Pretty exciting right? One of the Elders in our area is from Holladay, Elder Christensen. He's a nice guy. The other (Elder Etchichury) just arrived in the area and is from the south of Brazil. Also, Géssica was released as the Y.W. President and might be getting a new calling this coming week. We are both a little relieved as those two callings were super time consuming, but I expect that our new callings will require as much of our time as did the last two.

On to our new house!! The circumstances that made us move were less than pleasant but overall, we are very happy that we made the move. Our new house is on a central road, much different than our last which was in an alleyway. It is on the second floor of a building; on top of a hardware store. Much safer, and a lot less mosquitoes. (I had no idea how stressful mosquitoes could be) The only bad thing is the sound of the cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles going by (since we're on a central road, and there are no sound enforcement laws here it's kind of rough) Other than that it's nice. Here's some pics:

I am still pretty busy teaching English. There are many opportunities to teach, I'm  grateful for that. Géssica is still working hard at her job. The phone company she works for just decided to change 80 employees' hours from the morning to the evening. So starting in December she will start around 3 in the afternoon and go until 9. We aren't sure how we feel about that yet...

Well, Christmas is coming up soon, but it sure doesn't feel like it here in Fortaleza. The weather is as hot as ever and I haven't heard any Christmas music yet. We are thinking about getting a tiny artificial tree, or maybe putting up some lights, but I guess we'll see.

I think that's about all the news that we have for now. I finally have a few topics in mind to write about so I'll probably post again within the next week. Love you all.

-Andrew aka The Boss